Joanne McCarthy was involved in a "pitched mortal battle" as she fought for her life, Simon Moore, the Crown Solicitor for Auckland, said yesterday.
In his closing address in the Travis Burns murder trial in the High Court at Auckland, Mr Moore said it was a fight that Joanne McCarthy was to lose.
As her husband, Kurt Bolli, said, she would have been "like a lioness defending her cubs."
Mr Moore said that, as she raised an arm to protect herself during the desperate struggle, she instinctively lashed out, scratching her attacker with her "claws."
While she lost the battle, she extracted "the very clue which this case revolves around."
DNA found under the dead woman's fingernails was shown to be 300 billion times more likely to have come from Burns than from any other man in the country.
Burns, aged 32, of Titirangi, is accused of aggravated burglary and murdering the 33-year-old kindergarten teacher with a hammer at her Whangaparaoa home on November 12, 1998.
Mr Moore said the Crown relied on 19 pieces of circumstantial evidence, which in combination proved that Burns was the murderer.
They included the DNA evidence, the fact that Burns had owned a pair of boots of the same type that left a bloody footprint at the scene, and his confession to a former friend that he was the killer.
The defence case is that the killer or killers were people associated with a yellow ute seen at the property around 12.50 pm - when Burns was seen on a BNZ bank video in Milford 30km away.
But Mr Moore maintained his previously stated view that the yellow ute was a red herring which had nothing to do with the killing.
He pointed out that a neighbour who described hearing screams - which he at first thought came from a child - heard the sounds before seeing the vehicle arrive.
A jogger who saw the vehicle leave the property saw it again parked at nearby toilets.
But Mr Moore asked how likely it was that a killer would stay around the area; he would have high-tailed it away as fast as he could.
Mr Moore said that the vehicle probably drove straight in and straight out of the property.
It was possible to "speculate for ever" what the vehicle was doing there, whether it was merely turning around or got the wrong house.
Mr Moore said that the timing of events surrounding the killing had a huge significance in the case.
The Crown contends that Joanne McCarthy was killed between 11.35 am, when she was last seen alive, and noon - giving Burns "all the time in the world" to get to Milford to deliberately get himself an alibi on the BNZ bank video at 12.50 pm.
Burns claimed he had gone to "case" the bank, but Mr Moore said: "He was clearly there to be seen."
Mr Moore said that Joanne McCarthy was interrupted as she prepared lunch for her son, Marcus, and the child of a friend, something she routinely did before noon.
In addition, a pathologist who gave evidence for the Crown said that death occurred in the first hour after 11.35 am.
This was "very inconvenient for the defence," said Mr Moore. It excluded the yellow ute seen by the neighbour and the jogger from being involved, "because by that time Joanne McCarthy was well and truly dead."
Mr Moore said that the motive for the crime was Burns' desperate need for money: he was down to his last 29 cents.
"There was clear evidence of motive and one of the principal grounds was lack of funds."
But Burns did not expect the degree of retaliation and resistance from Joanne McCarthy.
Mr Moore said that, after a superficial search of the property, Burns took $29 from a table.
He later used some of it to buy a first aid kit to treat the scratch Joanne McCarthy inflicted on his abdomen.
The trial, before Justice Robert Chambers, continues today.
Victim's 'claws' drew vital clue
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